RSI can take a bit of strategy from other companies that have been successful in retaining past customers.

After a manager has been inactive X months, RSI sends them a letter saying 'we miss you!' + a free team rollup.

It costs them a stamp, and the response rate doesn't even have to be high for RSI to make a good return on this almost 0 investment.

They should do this with their other games Forgotten Realms and Hyborian War as well IMO.

They did this before back in the early 90's. I remember recieving a folded piece of paper with mini-overviews of and old team and a new team rollup below the mini's. It worked and got me playing again even though the new team rollup was ugly as hell.

If they even sent out 1,000 letters with mini's at $0.44 per stamp, that's only a $440 (call it $500 even when you include the cost of envelopes, paper and toner) investment for the chance to increase the player base. Even if they only receive a 3-5% success rate, that would still more than pay back the cost of the mailings.

May your blades always be sharp, and your opponents armor always have rust.....

LHISite Admin

Joined: Jun 20, 2002
Posts: 1318

Posted:
Thu Jul 14, 2011 11:20 pm

I got started in 92 or so any my fights now read exactly like they did back then. So in the last 19 years there hasn't been much change from my point of view.

If I wanted long fights I could design warriors for that. I usually design to win without considering fight length though.

As for crits (the fancy statements) you can have those almost immediately as well. (Although not with average to poor roll ups.)

I see definate progression in a warrior's skill as he trains up.

_________________More TCs please!

PecKillerUnchartered Poster

Joined: May 23, 2011
Posts: 29
Location: Daly City, CA

Posted:
Fri Jul 15, 2011 9:24 am

This perspective is from one recent and active fighter that is a PL with master in attack, initiative and parry that i reactivated recently. 4 arena fights and 3 from the last mail in tournament the fights i lost i basically got 1 or 2 shotted and i parried less than 20% of the attacks against me. graduated to ADM and won the last 3 fights. my PL actually parries 80% or more attacks against him and seems to take more damage than before with no armor changes. fights are definately more "flashy" and exciting to read. the regular fights were short and boring while the adm he seems like a totally different warrior. limited experience as i just started playing again after being out for about 20 years. so far the adm part of the game is better. chance or luck, who knows.

Seraphim53Grandmaster Poster

Joined: Jul 14, 2003
Posts: 753

Posted:
Fri Oct 21, 2011 1:40 am

PecKiller wrote:

This perspective is from one recent and active fighter that is a PL with master in attack, initiative and parry that i reactivated recently. 4 arena fights and 3 from the last mail in tournament the fights i lost i basically got 1 or 2 shotted and i parried less than 20% of the attacks against me. graduated to ADM and won the last 3 fights. my PL actually parries 80% or more attacks against him and seems to take more damage than before with no armor changes. fights are definately more "flashy" and exciting to read. the regular fights were short and boring while the adm he seems like a totally different warrior. limited experience as i just started playing again after being out for about 20 years. so far the adm part of the game is better. chance or luck, who knows.

More likely you started running him/her with his/her favorite weapon and using his/her preferred battle rhythm, which you might have learned upon graduation. Both of these add to the 'Flash" of a fight because they boos the abilities of the fighter.

You can achieve some of the same results in regular arena if you correctly guess the weapon and rhythm of the fighter before he/she graduates and you're told what it is.

_________________Seraphim (Leader of Legions all over Alastari)
Dark Arena advocate
"I don't know why everyone thinks I'm a killer"Mannequin
"The easiest way to win is to knock them down and kill them"Mannequin

Seraphim53Grandmaster Poster

Joined: Jul 14, 2003
Posts: 753

Posted:
Fri Oct 21, 2011 1:52 am

MarmaDuke wrote:

If they even sent out 1,000 letters with mini's at $0.44 per stamp, that's only a $440 (call it $500 even when you include the cost of envelopes, paper and toner) investment for the chance to increase the player base. Even if they only receive a 3-5% success rate, that would still more than pay back the cost of the mailings.

This might work, but to be honest I think a lot of people stop playing because there is limited tournament turnover. Of the large group of managers that play/have played it's always for the most part been a select group that brings home the TC's

And the more TC's a person collects the more prizes are applied, meaning the better chance for more TC's. It's a grueling curve to break into.

A free team roll up and a fight or 5 on the house would probably only bring limited return for a limited time.

I think a better and longer lasting advertisement would be to offer door prizes at the tournament. If the ladies randomly offered even two additional prizes at every tourney to two random individuals it would:

1) increase the tourney size as players would try for the random prize.

and possibly

2) If this was advertised to old players who became disenfranchised as a way to "spread out the competition" it would likely bring a few back that got tired of trying to "break" into the elite.

I don't think a half dozen extra prizes a year would break the game, it might actually spread out the competition.

Just my $0.02

_________________Seraphim (Leader of Legions all over Alastari)
Dark Arena advocate
"I don't know why everyone thinks I'm a killer"Mannequin
"The easiest way to win is to knock them down and kill them"Mannequin

DekeAdvanced Master Poster

Joined: Aug 15, 2006
Posts: 390
Location: Atlanta Georgia Area

Posted:
Fri Feb 08, 2013 11:19 am

There was a time period of more descriptive text pre 1986. One of the changes that occured during the "fight called by the ref" changes was certain text lines were eliminated. Somewhere around 1985 TP scum were a problem and they did a code tweak to stop unpopular fights and award a winner. This did not last long, but at that time the text lines were changed during the "fight called by the ref toggle on/toggle off.

_________________Deke is a relic of the past known as Doc LeGrand
Arena 21, 81, 102 as Doc LeGrand's Lab

I was thinking about this: RSI could save some money in postage if they stopped sending us turns where we don't fight. As everyone knows, they send us a newsletter for every arena, if we fought there the previous turn. I, for one, never even look at these and just toss 'em in the pile... I would be perfectly fine with not getting them. Especially with the newsletters being available online, they are quite unnecessary.

I'm an old fart who played back in the early 90's, heck I probably still got my letter from Doc Legrand giving me tips. Im not sure if RSI is doing it, but having some sort of electronic means to play(email submissions and turns) would benefit me and probably many others.
I seem to remember some chat from back in the early days of this forum that RSI had some legal issues with going with electronic mail. Something about RSI did not have full rights to the game.
I currently play another PBM, been playing it since 2003 and only do it by email. They also provided a turn entry program for turn submissions.
If RSI could do this, they would save much money, and could do a 1 week turn around arena. Auto mating things will make for more accurate turns and less work for RSI.

Evidently, you haven't been around and seen some of the problem automation has caused.

I, and it seems a lot of others, like it the way it is. It's not like it is a rush to get stuff in. You get to sit with your turns and think your strategies through instead of rushing off to meet a overly repetitive deadline. Not to mention, I like a solid copy in my hand.

To be honest, if you are going to play, you are going to play. The excuse that it isn't by e-mail is a weak one. There are a lot of games that aren't by e-mail, yet people still play. If it is a fun game, it will be a fun game regardless.

Lugal_ggAdvanced Expert Poster

Joined: Jul 28, 2002
Posts: 170
Location: San Diego

Posted:
Sun Jun 30, 2013 8:15 am

Longshot wrote:

Evidently, you haven't been around and seen some of the problem automation has caused.

I, and it seems a lot of others, like it the way it is. It's not like it is a rush to get stuff in. You get to sit with your turns and think your strategies through instead of rushing off to meet a overly repetitive deadline. Not to mention, I like a solid copy in my hand.

To be honest, if you are going to play, you are going to play. The excuse that it isn't by e-mail is a weak one. There are a lot of games that aren't by e-mail, yet people still play. If it is a fun game, it will be a fun game regardless.

You are correct, I have been MIA. I think a move to electronic can be done while maintaining the style in which you want. Going back to the game I have been playing, they fully support those who wish to have physical turn reports snail mailed while sending electronic to the others.
Since this thread is about boosting business, we need to try to think about the greater good, not just our own.
If RSI had an electronic means, they could now fully support non USA based players. RSI could in turn see growth from new markets, instead of stagnation at best from the current.

As for me playing, I can not at this time afford to play. Already spend more than I should on games. The reason I stopped was due to having what was the best rollup I ever had, 21 wit, 21 deft 21 will Aimer. That killed it for me. If I had the money, I would buy a resurrection/immortality prize to bring him out of the dead.

Now, we all love PBM games, my first was Hyborian War back in the 80's. I love the rush of getting that turn in the mail. Things change, things evolve. We must as well. Adopt new means to deliver your media, grow or die. I just hope this game will be around when I finally get the funds to play again.

RSI cannot and will not offer any email or web-based version of Duel2. It is part of the agreement they made when the company "reorganized". The other party is maintaining the rights to an online gladiatorial combat game.

RSI cannot and will not offer any email or web-based version of Duel2. It is part of the agreement they made when the company "reorganized". The other party is maintaining the rights to an online gladiatorial combat game.

If the other game was Pathocrom, it s no longer available. That company turned it into Pit of War. Which is a F2P MMO 'esq game now. Wish RSI could get the rights.

Evidently, you haven't been around and seen some of the problem automation has caused.

I, and it seems a lot of others, like it the way it is. It's not like it is a rush to get stuff in. You get to sit with your turns and think your strategies through instead of rushing off to meet a overly repetitive deadline. Not to mention, I like a solid copy in my hand.

To be honest, if you are going to play, you are going to play. The excuse that it isn't by e-mail is a weak one. There are a lot of games that aren't by e-mail, yet people still play. If it is a fun game, it will be a fun game regardless.

You are correct, I have been MIA. I think a move to electronic can be done while maintaining the style in which you want. Going back to the game I have been playing, they fully support those who wish to have physical turn reports snail mailed while sending electronic to the others.
Since this thread is about boosting business, we need to try to think about the greater good, not just our own.
If RSI had an electronic means, they could now fully support non USA based players. RSI could in turn see growth from new markets, instead of stagnation at best from the current.

There are a lot of problem with RSI. Not being an e-mail based game isn't one of them.

As I said, if you are going to play, you will play. End of story.

I also heard about RSI not being able to send turn via e-mail. And to be honest, I like it like that.

To be honest, it's not like you thought of the idea hasn't been thought of before and it's a dead thread anyway. I am dropping out of this conversation.

One Armed BanditArchMaster Poster

Joined: Apr 15, 2004
Posts: 2611

Posted:
Mon Jul 01, 2013 3:13 am

Welcome back, Lugal_gg, even if its only to visit the website. As you can see, there is still a loyal player base. :)

While there is certainly no cause to get angry about the topic, I agree with some others that the people who continue to play the game, by and large prefer paper delivery. Many have suggested what you've suggested, and there is a combination of legal and philosophical deterrents that keeps RSI dealing mostly in paper. I say mostly, because you can email in personal ads and team spotlights, you can email customer service requests, you can email in strategy changes when your turns don't reach you in a timely manner.

At the end of the day, though, the PBM companies who went to PBeM went out of business, and RSI has survived. There is something substantial about paper and most of the player base prefers it. The owners and operators of RSI like paper. They now run a bookstore in addition to running PBM games.

I don't begrudge you the right to wish that RSI would do things differently. From prior experience, though, I find it best to accept them as they are.

I hope that you change your mind and decide to join us again in the arenas!